Bill will boost powers of anti-doping agency

WITNESSES who fail to co-operate with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority will face civil penalties under a new bill set to impact profoundly on Australian sport.

A representative for federal sports minister Kate Lundy confirmed to Fairfax Media on Wednesday night that the ''Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority amendment bill 2013'' was introduced within 24 hours of the revelation that Essendon are to be probed for players' use of possibly illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Provided the bill is passed, the agency will have the legal right to compel any person it believes to have information about doping practice, or a specific doping breach, to give evidence in an interview.

ASADA - which is in the midst of a major probe into Australian cycling after the Lance Armstrong scandal and is launching an AFL investigation - would also have the right to compel witnesses to produce documents or other related material.

As it stands, any witnesses the agency is interested in talking to for a doping investigation can refuse requests for evidence.

Refusal, if the bill is passed, would see ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska issue any persons of interest with a disclosure notice. Andruska would have the power to issue such a notice not only to athletes or related sports personnel, but to anyone believed to have information on doping or a doping breach.

While the AFL has rules under its anti-doping code that insist relevant parties co-operate with any investigations, the new bill gives ASADA unprecedented power and control over doping probes.

The major boost to the agency's powers has been championed previously by Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates and was a key recommendation of former Supreme Court judge James Wood, who carried out an investigation into doping in Australian cycling. Wood's findings were tabled in January.

Senator Lundy is set to make a major drugs-in-sport announcement in Canberra on Thursday morning with Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare. It's understood the introduction of the bill to bolster the agency's powers is related to the announcement.

Meanwhile, a direct link between the ''short-cut'' culture of supplement use and subsequent engagement in doping is a major concern of national coaches, highlighted in the federal government-charged inquiry into cycling.

Supplements are considered such a danger in a sport grappling with an international doping crisis that Cycling Australia is introducing a formal register that will make it mandatory for elite athletes to record everything they take.

The use of supplements was described in the investigation into doping in Australian cycling by judge Wood as ''widespread, but not necessarily productive''. The quality of supplements was described as ''notoriously difficult'' to regulate.

The Wood report, released last month, showed Australia's top cyclists are increasingly eager to use supplements to gain an edge. Their coaches, in contrast, are highly concerned about the potential risks - chiefly that the supplements might contain banned substances - and are also sceptical about the benefits.

Alarmingly, the Wood report also underlined the widespread fear of national coaches about a practice that ''can promote a culture or mindset that will lead an individual to adopt other short-cuts including engaging in prohibited forms of doping''.

Athletes were ''seemingly pressured by relentless promotions and advertising that suggest they are 'being left behind' if they are not using supplements'', according to the investigation - a message that conflicts with the agency's warnings about the risks of supplements.

All 16 recommendations in Wood's 95-page report have been approved by Senator Lundy. She called for the review into cycling last October after the US Anti-Doping Agency stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life.

ASADA's probe into Essendon's use of supplements comes weeks after Gerry Ryan, the owner of Australia's professional cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE, claimed the AFL had ''huge drug problems''.

Ryan, a well-connected former St Kilda board member, Melbourne Storm director and owner of 2010 Melbourne Cup winner Americain, expressed frustration in December that domestic football codes were not scrutinised as heavily for doping.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/bill-will-boost-powers-of-antidoping-agency-20130206-2dz2v.html